I usually translate stuff from Japanese to English, so it was an odd feeling when a few years back an interview I did about the MOTHER 3 translation was translated into Japanese! What was even more interesting was that the translator had contacted me for extra clarification on stuff – man, that’s a translator’s dream!

Anyway, if by some chance you know Japanese, here’s a copy of said Japanese translation interview: link

Season 2 of Last Exile was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray in English. I worked on this a while back, so if you wanna see some of my work in action, check it out!

I worked on this during the simulcast – so I essentially worked on it one episode a week as it aired in Japan until it was finally finished. I also did a ton of research on the translation/localization style and choices made in the first season. I filled up pages and pages of notes, it was a lot of work, but it was also fun digging deep into the translation like that. Hopefully it shows in my translations of the second season!

I was also working on this show when I got married, so now whenever I think of this show I think of that

A big translation/localization issue in this show is that a major character and a few side characters speak only in Russian. This presented a number of problems, and it was a lot of fun trying to grapple with Russian->Japanese->English and back and forth issues, including conversions between Cyrillic and phonetic writing. It was crazy. I actually don’t know how the dub handles this Russian stuff, so I look forward to finding out!

Anyway, if you ever get the chance, check out Season 2 sometime! And Season 1 of course, but you don’t necessarily need to see it to enjoy Season 2.

I’ve been in a gaming funk lately (well, maybe for years and years now) but I decided to try playing some more games recently despite lack of time.

The one game I decided to try was Spec Ops: The Line because Jeff of EarthBound Saga/Fangamer fame lent it to me saying it was good. I know he’s not a dudebro shooter type of guy at all, so I gave it a shot after many months. It took me a while to get through it because of my schedule but man, I was really surprised. I enjoyed the game as I was playing it, but even better than that I find myself still thinking back to the game/what happened/possible interpretations of stuff long after I’ve finished it… and I’m left to wonder when the last time a game really made me do that. It happens a lot when I finish a good book or a movie, but rarely a game. Granted, I don’t play games much anymore, but still In any case, I’m not a military shooting game type of guy, but I really liked it a lot. If you can go into it without any real expectations I think it’ll be a neat experience. It’s nothing mind-shatteringly awesome or anything though, it’s just cool and different and memorable.

I also recently picked Demon’s Souls back up. I’ve had it for a few years now and I’ll play it for about 2 hours every six months. As a result, I’m barely into the game, always have to relearn the controls, stat system, etc. But yesterday was a holiday, so I was like, “Okay, I AM gonna get through a new level in this game!” So I died and died a lot but I got through 2-2 and got to the boss. And died. Then died another 10 times getting back to it.

My second encounter with it lasted longer than five seconds. I don’t think I’ve ever had a boss battle in a game get my heart pumping that hard and like every 10 seconds I was nearly dead again (the game character not me me) but just managed to scrape by. I finally beat it after what seemed like forever. I’m sure there are easy ways to beat it, but I basically just rolled around, used pillars for cover when possible, and praised Giygas whenever I barely avoided death. Oh man, I can’t even begin to imagine how tough other bosses are going to be :X

So that’s my gaming status report for now! If you have any insight/tips/thoughts/whatevers about these games or other recommended games, let me know!

The last couple of weeks I’ve somehow gotten on gaming sites’ radars without really doing anything. But the weirdest thing of all is hearing Internet people say my name out loud. I still gotta get used to that

A lot’s been going on the past month or two. I programmed a game! I’ve started moving Legends of Localization to its own site! I had a MOTHER 2 live stream party playthrough wacky weird day with the Fangamer folks when the game was re-released in Japan earlier this week! I did other stuff I forget!

At some point when things slow down (if they do?) I’ll make more detailed posts about all sorts of new stuff, but right now the big question I’ve been getting is what’s up with Legends of Localization. As mentioned, I’m in the middle of moving LoL over to its own dedicated site. Most of it is already over there now, I think. I’m in the middle of converting and moving the EarthBound/Mother 2 comparison stuff over to the site too. Once I’m done with that, I’m going to jump back into normal updates with Mother 3 and Final Fantasy IV. What I’m thinking of doing is rather than spend a week or a month on a single page, I’ll update sections/pages with smaller updates on a more regular basis.

I also haven’t discounted the idea of pausing Mother 3 yet again so I can power through the Mother 1/EarthBound Zero comparison as discussed here, but I feel really bad for leaving FFIV hanging for so long that I probably shouldn’t. What I need is more time in the dayyyyy

Something I’ve debated doing for a while now is allowing people to comment on individual pages on my Legends of Localization projects. Like, each individual page that takes up a chapter or town or whatever. An example of what I mean is this. Would it be good to allow comments at the bottom of pages like that?

Is this something that would be good to have? Or do you feel it might detract from the pure info dump-ness of it all? Let me know!

If you’ve never seen or read Shakugan no Shana stuff before, this is a good introduction! It’s a retelling of the first story arc, but in theatrical form obviously. It’s hard to explain this series, it’s a combination of Japanese high school stuff (hardly surprising) but also monsters/beings that can devour people’s existences. If your existence gets eaten, the world changes as if you never existed at all.

If you’re not into anime, I’d at least recommend checking the Shana series out for its music – it’s done by Kow Otani, who gamers might know as the composer for Shadow of the Colossus. In fact, I didn’t realize it at first myself until I was like, “Man, this sure sounds like Shadow of the Colossus music.” And then bam, it suddenly made sense why!

You can get the DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon here. It’s got lots of extras too!

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this takes place during Season 2 (which was released last month) – it’s basically a bunch of side stories that are more lighthearted and less serious than the main series. I really enjoyed working on these because of that. This has lots of extras too! It’s on Amazon here.

And that’s all for now, but I know I’ve forgotten a few recent releases that I’ve worked on, so I’ll post about them another day!

I’ve been talking about working on my MOTHER 3 translation notes forever, and finally I have something to show for it! There’s a new Legends of Localization page up now for MOTHER 3 here! Check it out, there’s lots of neat info, including stuff that’s never been revealed before until now!

I’m still not sure how I’m going to juggle this with my Final Fantasy IV Legends of Localization, but since I’m hoping to turn these MOTHER 3 notes into the first LoL book at some point they’ve taken a little more priority. I’d like to continue both at the same time though, so we’ll see!

Nadia Oxford recently posted an article on 1up.com about the recent issue in which mobile games and indie games generally don’t have good localizations. It’s an interesting read and features commentary by Alexander O. Smith (a living legend in this industry) and me!